Industrial Recycling:turning waste into commodities

Presenters: Brooks and Kristi Snyder

Waste and Commodities

• What is waste?• According to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), waste is defined as unwanted materials left over from a manufacturing process.

• What is a commodity?• A commodity is defined as an economic good and something that is useful or valued.

Copper Wire• There are different grades of copper wire which

include:• Number 1 Copper Wire Scrap• Consists of clean, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire that

is not smaller than 16 gauge• Number 2 Copper Wire Scrap• Consists of clean, unalloyed copper wire free of hair

wire, brittle burnt wire and excessive oil with a minimum copper content of 94 percent re-melt recovery rate

Commodity vs Special Waste• Special waste is any production waste material

not generated form cafeteria, office or general trash. Landfills charge more to receive special waste and special waste requires TCLP testing and manifests.

• Commodity would be any production “byproduct” that someone is willing to at least pay for the transportation and use in their operations. Examples are spent steel shot, grinding swarf, grinding wheels and in some cases waste water treatment sludge.

Electronic Waste• What is electronic waste or E-waste?• This type of waste is waste that consists of discarded

electronic products such as computers, televisions and cell phones.

• By providing a way to recycle unwanted electronic waste, eRecycling can ensure data security by way of data destruction while also lessening the environmental impact of electronic waste.

Pallets• There are different pallet sizes which include:

• 48” x 40”• 42” x 42”• 48” x 48”• 40” x 48”• 48” x 42”• 40” x 40”

• 48” x 45”• 44” x 44”• 36” x 36”• 48” x 36”• 35” x 45.5”• 48” x 20”

• It is much more cost effective to have used pallets rebuilt because they can then be purchased back at a fraction of the cost that would be necessary to purchase new pallets.

Steel• There are many different grades of Steel which

include:• Steel Grade 1: Carbon Steels• Steel Grade 2: Nickel Steels• Steel Grade 3: Nickel-chromium Steels• Steel Grade 4: Molybdenum Steels• Steel Grade 5: Chromium Steels• Steel Grade 6: Chromium-vanadium Steels• Steel Grade 7: Tungsten Steels• Steel Grade 8: Nickel-chromium-molybdenum Steels• Steel Grade 9: Silicon-manganese Steels

Process Liquids• Some of the different grades of oils include:

• Water bases cutting oils• Synthetic cutting oils• Quench oils• Coolants

Important Facts to Know

•Ethylene Glycol can be recycled but can’t be mixed with other oils if recycling is to take place.

•Parts washing and recycling can be done in-house.

•You can recycle absorbents.

So what does going green mean?

What going green really means is lowering your environmental footprint and doing what you can in-house. There are often simple changes that can be made to reduce a company’s environmental impact in addition to saving money.